Kennesaw State names Brian Bohannon first Head Football Coach

KENNESAW, Ga. -- Brian Bohannon, who has spent the past five seasons as quarterbacks/B-backs coach at Georgia Tech and engineered one of the country's most prolific spread option offenses, has been named the first-ever head football coach at Kennesaw State University, Director of Athletics Vaughn Williams announced on Sunday.

"This is an extremely exciting moment in Kennesaw State University history," Williams said. "Coach Bohannon embodies every value, characteristic and skill set that we look for when choosing head coaches to lead our student-athletes. Brian has distinguished himself as a servant leader who will build a program the right way. I can't wait to kick off that football in 2015."

Bohannon will be introduced at a press conference inside the Owls' locker room at Fifth Third Bank Stadium on Tuesday (March 26) beginning at 11 a.m. (ET). The event will be streamed live at www.ksuowls.com.

"Let me start by saying how excited I am to be the first-ever Kennesaw State head football coach," Bohannon said. "Kennesaw State is a special place with a great student body, administration and faculty, and I am just excited about the opportunity.

"I also want to give special thanks to University President Dr. Dan Papp, Vaughn Williams, the search committee and the people I met with during my interview," Bohannon added. "I thoroughly enjoyed the process, everything was run in a first-class manner, and I can't wait to get started. My goal is to work toward developing the total student-athlete in the classroom, on the field of play and in the campus and local communities."

A native of Griffin, Ga., Bohannon has 17 years of coaching experience at the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) levels, all of which have come while working with Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson.

Since Bohannon's arrival at Georgia Tech in 2008, the Yellow Jackets have finished in the top four nationally in rushing offense every season, including in 2010 when they led the nation in rushing for the first time in school history.

During the last five years, no team in college football has rushed for more yards than Georgia Tech as the Yellow Jackets have accumulated more than 20,000 yards on the ground.

Last season, Georgia Tech broke school records for total offense and rushing yards. The Yellow Jackets also averaged a school-record 40.0 points per game in conference play.

Two B-backs - David Sims and Zach Laskey - combined to rush for more than 1,300 yards. Two quarterbacks - Tevin Washington and Vad Lee - combined to run for more than 1,200 yards. Washington broke the school record for rushing touchdowns in a season (20).

Under Bohannon's direction, former Georgia Tech quarterbacks Washington and Joshua Nesbitt emerged as two of the most prolific signal callers in Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC)?history. Nesbitt and Washington combined to rush for more than 5,000 yards and rank first and third, respectively, in ACC history for career rushing yards by a quarterback.

Under Bohannon, four players have rushed for more than 1,000 yards in a season -- B-back Jonathan Dwyer in 2008, Dwyer and Nesbitt in 2009, and B-back Anthony Allen in 2010.
Dwyer was a first-team All-ACC selection in 2008 and 2009. Nesbitt was the first team All-ACC quarterback in 2009, and Allen was first-team all-conference in 2010. Dwyer and Allen are both enjoying successful NFL?careers.

Bohannon helped Washington emerge from a back-up quarterback in 2010 to one of the ACC's most productive signal-callers in 2011 and 2012. Washington's 986 rushing yards in 2011 were the second-most ever by a Georgia Tech quarterback and his passing efficiency (155.4) was the third-highest in Yellow Jacket history.

Bohannon helped Nesbitt develop from a running specialist out of the shotgun into one of the nation's premier dual threat quarterbacks. Nesbitt completed his career as the most prolific rushing quarterback in ACC?history. He likely would have become just the eighth player in NCAA?history to rush and pass for 3,000 career yards if not for an injury that cost him the final four games of the 2010 season.

Before arriving at Georgia Tech, Bohannon spent six years as wide receivers coach at Navy. He was part of a staff that returned the Midshipmen to the national spotlight. Navy won 35 games over four years, earning a school-record four consecutive bowl berths and a school-best four straight Commander-In-Chief's Trophies.

Under Bohannon, Navy's receiving corps emerged as outstanding receivers as well as skilled blockers.

Navy's offense put up remarkable numbers in 2007. The Midshipmen ranked first nationally in rushing (348.8 ypg), 10th in scoring (39.3 ppg.), and 22nd in total offense (444.1 ypg.) and ninth in sacks allowed (1.08 pg). Navy's rushing attack averaged a nation's best 318.7 yards per contest in 2005 as the Midshipmen went to a bowl game for a third straight year, won a second consecutive bowl game and captured the Commander-In-Chief's Trophy for a third-straight year.

Bohannon's mentoring helped the wide receiver corps perform well enough for the Midshipmen to finish 45th in the country in total offense (388.8 ypg.), third in rushing offense (289.5 ypg.), and win a school-record-tying 10 games (the most wins since 1905) in 2004. Navy won the Emerald Bowl and claimed the Commander-In-Chief's Trophy.

The Midshipmen led the nation in rushing (323.2 yards per contest) and set school records for rushing yards per game, total rushing yards (4,202), rushing yards per attempt (5.5), rushing touchdowns (44), total offense (5,506), total offense per game (423.5) and yards per play (6.0) in 2003.

Navy had the third-best rushing average in the country (270.5 ypg.) and scored 30 or more points on four occasions during the 2002 season.

Bohannon coached the wide receivers for three seasons (1997-99) at Georgia Southern before taking over the defensive backs his last two years (2000-01).

During his initial season as defensive backs coach, the secondary played a key role in Georgia Southern's efforts, ranking 18th nationally in pass defense (156.1 yards per game) and 28th in interceptions (16). The Eagles' secondary took another leap forward in 2001, finishing second nationally in pass defense (125.6 yards per game), fourth in scoring defense (12.0 points per game) and sixth in total defense (261.4 yards per game).

During Bohannon's five seasons in Statesboro, Georgia Southern advanced to the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs, finishing as national runner-up in 1998 and claiming back-to-back national championships in 1999 and 2000.

A four-year letter winner and standout as a wide receiver at Georgia, Bohannon started his coaching career at West Georgia before earning his first full-time position at Gardner-Webb (N.C.) as wide receivers coach in 1996.

Bohannon earned his bachelor's degree in general business from Georgia in 1993 and a master's in business education from West Georgia in 1996. He is married to the former Melanie Cobb and they have three children, sons Blake Patrick and Braden Thomas, and daughter Brooke Anna.